Garis & Hahn is pleased to present Neo-American Transcendental, an exhibition of recent mixed-media work and a continuation of previous series from Michael Maxwell. For this solo show, Maxwell presents 12 large-scale paintings that blend digital imagery with natural mark-making, which result in heavily-layered assemblages that incorporate the artist’s Neo-expressionist and Abstract Expressionist influences.

The new paintings build upon ideas and themes that Maxwell has introduced in three previous series—“Phosphenes”, “Li,” and “Orgone”—and introduces a new series, “Landscapes.” Beginning with a pattern constructed digitally, the artist adds a range of organic and inorganic materials (oil paint, beeswax, clay, quartz crystal, among others) to the printed base layer. There is “tension” between the programmed marks and the paint strokes as he strives to make sure every element is in balance with one another. A painting’s physicality–how it exists and occupies space–is central to the artist’s practice.